Electrically-operated alarm-clock.



w. P LOCKE. v ELEGTRIGALLY OPERATED ALARM CLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 10, 1912.

Patented Dec. 9, 1913.

3 SHEETSSHEET 1.

W. P. LOCKE. ELEGTRIGALLY OPERATED ALARM CLOCK.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 10 1912.

Patented Dec. 9, 19 13.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

W. P. LOCKB. ELEGTRIGALLY OPERATED ALARM GLOOK. APPLQIGATION FILED MAY10, 1912.

1,081,052. Patented Dec. 9, 1913.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

, Illinois,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE."

WILLIAM P. LOCKE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, 'ASSIGNOR OF ONE-TKIBD T0 JACOBA. KBESS AKD ONE-THIRD TO FRANK A. MQGOWAN, BOTH OF CANTON, OHIO.

ELECTBIGAELY-OPERATED ALARM-CLOCK.

Patented Dec. 9, 1913.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM P. Looms, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in thecounty" of Cook and State of have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Electrically-OperatedAlarm-Clocks, of which the following is :1

specification.

The present invention relates to that class of electrically wound clockswhich derive their winding force from a galvanic battery or othersimilar source of power through the medium of magnetic coils, certaincontacts being successively closed and opened by the movements of theclock train.

The invention relates specifically to clocks of that class to which isadded an automatically resetting and intermittent electric alarm, whichhaving been set for a particular hour requires no further attention, butwill sound every day at that hour.

The above pointed out objects together with other objects readilyapparent to those skilled in the art I attain by the constructionillustrated in the accompanying drawing, although my invention may beembodied in a variety .of other mechanical forms, the constructionillustrated being chosen to illustrate the invention in the accompanyingdrawings.

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the clock frame and winding coil base.Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the alarm contact drawings.

device. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of Fig. 1 showing the arrangement ofthe clock train and the different parts belonging thereto. Fig. 4 is arear view in detail elevation of the front frame showing the drivinglever and its different parts and accessories. Fig. 5 is a horizontalelevation of contact springs in posit-ion on lower half of holderblocks. Fig. 6 .is a detached vertical elevation of the contact springs,holder and retainin bridge. 7 is a front elevation of the c ock case andial. FigfB is a diagram showing the electrical circuits and circuitcontacts and connections between the clock mechanism,

cal detail elevation of alarm hand'dial.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding partsin all thefigures of the Referring to Figs. 1 and a it will be noted that theclock tram shown is of the marine escapement type such as are used thebetter grades of sprin actuated manually wound alarm clocks. fiut itwill be understood that the present invention is not necessarilyconfined to the particular type shown, owing to the fact that by aproper arrangement of the various necessary arts the operating princiles involved wouFd be identical in adeadt pendulum escapement. I

In the accompanying drawin s, 1 represents a clock frame constructed inthe usual manner and so arranged that the various parts can be connectedand assembled as usual. The clock train is so designed and arranged thatthe gear wheel 1 and its stafi' make a complete revolution every minute.Mounted upon the staff is a drop cam 2 made of nonconducting materialupon which ride the contact sprin 3 and 4, and an eccentric cam 6through w ich a contact is made with the spring 5. The contact springs3, 4 and 5 are held in an insulating holder or retamer 7 mounted uponthe adjustable bridge 8 which has formed thereon lateral extensions 8through which passes the frame sup porting post 9. The bridge 8 isprovided with the longitudinal extension 8', which is tapped to receivethe adjusting screw 10,

which passes through the slot 11, best illustrated in Fig. 1, in therear frame plate. This arrangement allows a close adjustment of thepressure ofthe contact springs upon the cam 2 and the eccentric 6'. Itwill be understood that the spring 4 when properl adjusted is slightlyshorter than the next ad jacent spring 3 and is provided with anextension 4, overlapping and slightly above the latter when in normalposition.

The contact springs 3, 4 and 5 are secured in the holder 7 asillustrated in Figs. 5 and 6. The holder 7 is composed or made u of twosections of insulating material w ich are provided with interlockingtongue and groove connections, and the sprl lie snug] in the grooves ofthe lower ha f and are rlgidly he (1 in position b the pressure on themof the tongues of t eupper half through the medium of the screws (1 andb, which pass through the washer plate a and the two halves of theholder into the adjustin' bridge 8. That section of each spring w ichlies in the holder is enlarged and has a recess on that side which is inline with the full length. of the spring, said reccsspermitting a ongitudinal ad ustment without -1 danger of contact between the springsand retaining screws. The springs have short extensions 03, e and fprojecting above the holder to which the conducting wires are secured.

The staff 12 of the intermediary gear 13 has mounted thereon a finetoothed ratchet wheel 14 engaging which is the pawl 15 mounted on thesickle shaped driving lever 16. This sickle'shaped driving lever. 16 isconnected at the-lower portion of the front frame 1 and secured theretoby the large headed shoulder screw 17. Mounted on the driving lever 16 ashort distance above the screw 17 is the power maintaining pawl 18. Thispawl has at its upper end a ratchet wheel engaging point 19 engaging theteeth of the ratchet wheel 14. The pawl 18 is provided with alongitudinal slot '20 through which extends the screw 21 pivotallyconnecting said pawl to the lever 16. It will .be understood that saidslot will permit a longitudinal as well as rocking movement of saidpawl. Through an integral angle portion 22 at the lower extremity of thepawl 18 passes the T head adjusting screw 23, to which is attached oneend of the power maintaining spring 24 the other end being attached tothe shoulder screw 21. The tension of the spring is adjusted by theknurled thumb nut 25 which has a lip 25*" extending over the edge of theangle 22 to prevent accidental rotation. The spring 26 being in thesplit stud 27 bears on the pawl 18 when the lever 16 has reached the endof its stroke while the pawl 15 is driving the clock train, therebycausing a positive engagement of the spur of the pawl 18 with the teethof the ratchet wheel 14. The spring 28 serves a like purpose with thepawl 15, but its pressure is constant. The extension of the lever 16below the screw 17 corresponding to the handle of the sickle, has acurved edge 16 which bears against the extension 29 of the armature 30.The armature 30 is provided with integral angled ears 31 and 32 throughwhich the hinge pin 36 extends, said pin also extending through thestationary cars 33 and 34 formed integral with the base plate 35, thushinging the armature 30 to said base plate. The coil spring 37 serves tokeep the armature against the curved edge 16 of the lever 16. The baseplate 35 is provided with an integral coil supporting flange 38 to whichare connected the magnet coils 39 and 40. An ear 41 also formed from thebase plate 35, holds the socket head screw 42 in which is secured arubber cushion 43 to act as a silencing butter for the armature 30, thescrew 42 permitting adjustment of said cushion and the lock nut 44securing same in fixed adjustment. The extensions 45 and 46 of the baseplate 35 provide the means whereby said plate is sebushing 55.

cured to the posts 47v and 48 of the clock frame. To the front end ofthe post 48 is secured the bracket 49 carrying the driving spring 50,one end of said sprmg being at tached to the extension 16 of the drivinglever 16, and the other end thereof to the bracket by the adjustingscrew '51 and the lipped nut 52.

Upon the hour hand sleeve 53 is firmly secured the pinion 54 which hasan insulating Meshing with--the pinion 54 is the alarm timing gear 56which has the circumferential contact spring 57 attached to its outerface. This spring has the section of the face adjoining its free endcovered by an insulating material 58, said insulation not fullyextending to the free end, but permitting the end 57 to extend a shortdistance beyond the insulation. The spring has a narrowed section 57extending from,

the section 57 by which it is attached to the gear 56, to .the sectionof said spring which is covered by the insulating material 58. A slightbend at the junction of section 57 and the insulated section throws theend 57. a short distance from the face of the ear'56.

In Fig. 2 it will be noted that t e gear the alarm hand-setting staff64. Secured firmly to said staff and at a short distance outward from.the face of the gear 56 is the alarm contact finger 65. To the forwardend of said staff is secured the alarm hand 65" adapted to sweep-thealarm dial 65". The alarm stop 59 is provided with the verticalextension 66, a portion of which is bent outward at substantially rightangles and the end of which projects through the slot 67 located at thetop of the front of the clock case 67 as shown in Fig. 7. The horizontalextension 68 of the alarm stop 59 enters the blades of the knife switch69 mount- The ed on the insulating standards ,70. two stop pins 71 and72 regulate the throw of the alarm stop; insulating sleeves on said stoppins preventing an electric contact through the same. The br cket 73 inconjunction with the apertures 74 and 75 in the base plate 35 serves toattach the mechanism of the clock to its casing.

It is obvious that the construction does not necessarily require anyparticular style of clock case, although for convenience and appearanceit is desirable to make provision for the concealment of the batterieswhen they are .to be located and contained within the clock case. As theclock is designed to operate on two ordinary dry cells the defigures andgraduations on a sign shown inFig. 7 which allows the concealment of onecell in each of the columns is preferably though not necessarily,employed.- The dial 75 does not differ from the established and wellknown styles with the exception of the alarm setting dial, which isdivided into two twelve hour periods as shown in Fi 9, which figure issomewhat enlarged. he half of the alarm setting dial which carries thehours from midnight to noon marked a. m. has dark light back ground; theother or second half from noon to midnight has marked thereon p. m.wit-h light figures and graduations on a dark back ground,thegraduations being in fifteen minute periods. To the rear of the caseor concealed therein is a ong or other alarm 72" actuated by the orinary electric ball mechanism which is common and well known and needs ndescription as the alarm within itself forms no specific part of thepresent invention except that an alarm of some kind must necessarily bepresent.

It will be understood by the description of the various constructionsabove pointed out and explained, the primer aim of the invention is toproduce a c ock of the class described designed to operate an' alarm,the combination to require the least possible attention, therebyeliminating as much as possible any annoying results arising frominattention and forgetfulness. A secondary aim and purpose is to producea clock of the character described, the cost ofwhich will not beprohibitive to general use; that is tosay to produce a clock that iscomparatively cheap taking into consideration the advantages attained.

It will be understood that the renewal of batteries is an item of someexpense in mechanism operating thereby, and therefore it is desirable tolimit the number to as few as possible, having, in view the practicaloperation of the clock. As most electrically operated clocks aredesigned for business and commercial purposes, the item as ,to cost isnot of such consideration as would be given to it inthe averagehousehold.

Practice does not permit an extensive movement of an armature from thecore heads of its magnetic coils. It has been the general practice tocenter the driving mechanism 0n the minute hand staff or a similarpurchase as the movements involved are oomparatively short,but theseshorter movements are gained at the expense of increased power as it iswell known that with every multiplication of the gears from theescapement increased power ecomes necessary to drive the train. I havetherefore centered the driving mechanism on a gear intermediate of thaton the minute hand staff, and that which corresponds to the escape wheelin a pendulum escapement. By this arrangement-less driving power isrequired; but a greater movement of the driving mechanism; but by thepeculiar design of the driving lever 16 this is accomplished without aproportionate increase in the move ment of the armature from themagnetic coils.

Fig. 4 shows this lever in the position it occupies just after a contacthas been made through the winding coils 39 and 40. The spring 50 is thenin its expanded or tension position and through the lever 16, pawl 15and ratchet 14 it tends to revolve the intermediary wheel 13, settingthetrain in motion. This movement continues until the gear 1 has made acomplete revolution when the winding contact is made and the cyclerepeated. From an inspection of Fig. 4'it will be apparent lowerextension of the lever 16, drawn through the point of contact-betweenthe said lever 16 and thearmature 30 is considerably shorter than theradius 16 of'the upper extension of said lever 16 drawn through thepoint-of contact between the thereby the movement imparted to thearmature 30 will be considerably less than the movement imparted to theratchet 14. The extent as well as the rate of movement imparted to thearmature 30 are'furt-her decreased by the point of contact between thearmature 30. and lever 16 following the de creasing arc of the curvededge 16 of the lever 16. As the armature swings away from the coils 39and 40 the distance increases between its point of contact with thecurved edge 16 and the centering screw, 17 therefore the leverage isincreased. The construction as shown therefore gives an increasingleverage to compensate tosome extent for the decreasing magnetic forceas well as a means for retarding the rate of decrease of the magneticforce in proportion to the extent of movement of the correlating arts.

When the lever 16 through the pawl 15 and ratchet 14 is driving the gear13 the sliding pawl 18 moves lengthwise by the tension of spring 24,until the lower end of slot 20 engages the supporting screw 21, when itis carried along the spur 19 dropping intosuccessive engagement ratchetwheel 14 and is held there in positive engagement by the spring 26 whenthe driving lever has reached the end of its movement. Then the windingcontact being made, the lever 16 is thrown in opposite direction to itsformer position. The point of the slide pawl 18 being in engagement withthe teeth of the ratchet wheel 14, said pawl cannot immediately followthe returning motion. Hence it follows that the screw 21 moves to theupper end of slot 20 thereby increasing the tension of spring with theteeth on the that the radius 16 of the pawl 15 and ratchet 14. It isevident that- 24;. This tension or power is transmitted tothe ratchetwheel 14 maintaining the driving power on the clock train when saidpower is not being developed through the pawl 15. It is evident that,thereby, the train has a constant driving power which otherwise would bebroken during the interval required for the lever 16 to return to itsinitial or starting position.

Referring to Fig. 8, 2 represents the batteries or generator of theelectric circuit which flows through the line A into the contact spring4. At a certain point in the revolution of the cam 2 the spring 4; dropsfrom the projection of said cam, the extension 4* then coming intocontact with the spring 3. This permits the current to flow throughspring 3, the line B, through the winding coils 39 and 40 and return byline C to generator 2. As the coils 39 and 40 are energized the armature3O throws the driving lever 16, thereby winding the driving s ring 50,the slide pawl 18 maintaining the riving power as previously described.A further revolution of the cam 2 allows the spring 3 to drop from theprojection of the cam when the normal position of the springs 3 and 4 isrenewed thereby breaking the es tablished circuit. When the projectionof the cam 2 has made approximately one-fourth of a revolution from thepoint where a contactis established through springs 3 and 4,

. the eccentric cam 6 makes a contact with the spring 5 and this contactis maintained until projection of cam 2 is approximately withlnone-fourth of a revolution of the point where the springs 3 and 4 makethe aforesaid contact. But the contact established by the eccentriccam 6and spring 5 does not complete an entire circuit until the followingcontacts with which it is in series are made.

When it is desired to set the alarm for a certain hour the alarmindicating hand is turned in the direction indicated by the arrow on thedial as shown in Fig. '9 by the thumb nut 76 and the frictional staff64, until said hand points to the hour desired on said dial. This causesthe contact finger. 65 to assume the same relative position. As thealarm timing gear 56 revolves with the clock train its frictionalcontact with the alarm stop 59 causes the extension 68 of said stop toenter the blades of the switch 69. This revolution of the gear-56 willin due time permit the contact finger 65 to ride on the insulationportion 58 of the spring 57. When the end of said insulation is reachedthe spring 5 7 will move outward until the exposed end 57 is in contactwith the finger 65. A closed circuit is now established through the lineA to D, through D to the alarm, from the latter through the line E tospring 5, through the eccentric cam 6 when it is in contact position,into the cam staff into the clock frame through the contact insuringspring 77 through the stafl 64 into the contact finger 65, spring 57,gear 56, stop lever 59,

.switch 69 returning by line F and a portion of C to generator. Thisalarm will ring intermittently, the circuit bein broken by the eccentriccam 6 for a period before and after the battery energy is desired tooperate the winding mechanism. The alarm will so continue to ring untilthe stop lever 59 is thrown to the right out of contact with the switch69. If this is not done the circuit will be opened after some time bythe further revolution of the gear 56 permitting the end 57 of thecontact spring 57 to pass the contact finger 65. When the alarm stop 59has been moved out of contact as soon as the alarm has sounded, itsfriction contact with the .gear 56 causes it to begin slowly movingtoward the contact position. But before it has reached the blades 69 thespring 57 and contact finger 65 are no longer completing the circuit.Therefore the alarm will not sound again until the gear 56 has made acomplete revolution which it does in a period of twenty-four hours. Nowit will be evident that the alarm once set for a certain hour will soundat that particular hour every day, without any attention whatever. Theonly attention necessary bein to stop the alarm after the circuit isclosed to prevent unnecessary use of current.

In practice it might occur that in setting the alarm the alarm handmight thou htlessly be 'turned to the left instead 0 to the right. Thismight result in damage to the contact spring 57 if provision for such acontingency were unprovided. If the alarm contact finger 65 be turned tothe left it will pass behind the end 57 a of the spring 57 until itreaches the narrowed section 57 when the elasticity of the said springwill cause it to resume its normal position without injury and furtherprovision is made by having left hand threads on the alarm and minutehand stafi's upon which the knurled thumb nuts 76 and 78 are screwed.

Having fully described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

1. In an electrically wound clock, the combination of a clock train, analarm'timing gear revolving in a twent -four hour cycle, acircumferential contact spring on said gear, a narrowed section on saidspring, an insulating section on said spring, an exposed contact sectionat the end of said insulat ing section on said spring, substantially asand for the purpose specified.

2. In an electrically wound clock, the combination of a clock train, anintermittent alarm contact device with an alarm timing gear revolving ina twenty-four hour cycle, a circumferential contact spring on said gear,an alarm stop in frictional contact with said gear, an angle on saidstop, the end of said angle projecting through the clock case, a lateralextension on said stop,

a switch making contact with said eXtension,.

an insulating support for said switch, insulating stop pins for saidalarm stop, substantia 1y as described.

3. In an electrically wound clock, the combination of a clock train, anintermittent alarm contact device with a frictional alarm hand carryingstaff, a contact finger secured to said staff, an insulating bushingrevolving on said staff, a sleeve on said bushing,-

an alarm timing gear revolving on said sleeve, an alarm stopinfrictional contact with Sald gear, a retaining Washer and a frictionaldisk washer on said sleeve, retaining flanges on said sleeve,substantially as and for the purpose described.

4. In a clock, an electrically operated alarm mechanism including analarm timing gear making a revolution in twenty-four hours, a contactspring carried by said gear, a staff upon WhlCh the gear revolves andthrough which the circuit is made, the gear being insulated from thestafl, a contact finger carried by said staff, and a circuit controllingswitch, the movable element of which is rictionally bound to said gearso as to be moved thereby toward the stationary element of the switch.

In testimony that I claim the above, I have hereunto subscribed my namein the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM P. LOCKE.

Witnesses:

ANNA M. STEIN, F. DANIEL.

